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Heart of Midlothian Football Club (more commonly known as Hearts) are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian. Russian-Lithuanian businessman and banker Vladimir Romanov has been the major shareholder of Hearts since he bought Chris Robinson's stake in 2005. They are the current holders of the Scottish Cup having beaten Hibernian 5–1 in the first all-Edinburgh final in 116 years. Hearts are managed by John McGlynn.

HISTORY

The club was formed by a group of friends from the Heart of Midlothian Dancing Club. The traditional story of the formation was that the group of friends bought a ball before playing local rules football at the Tron from where they were directed by a local policeman to the meadows to play. Local rules football was a mix of rugby and football as we know it. In December 1873 a match was held between Queens Park and Clydesdale at Raimes Park in Bonnington. This was the first time that Association rules had been seen in Edinburgh. Members from the dance hall viewed the match and in 1874 decided to adopt the association rules. The new side was Heart of Mid-Lothian Football Club. The exact date of the club's formation was never recorded however 1874 is regarded as the year of formation as it was when association rules were taken on, although Tom Purdie claimed the club was formed in 1873. The earliest mention of Heart of Midlothian in a sporting context is a report in The Scotsman newspaper from 20 July 1864 of The Scotsman vs Heart of Mid-Lothian at cricket. It is not known if this was the same club who went on to form the football club, but it was common for football clubs in those days to play other sports as well.

The club took its name from the Heart of Midlothian jail, which was demolished in 1817 but was kept fresh in the mind by Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian.

Led by captain Tom Purdie the club played its matches in the East Meadows and in 1875 Hearts became members of the Scottish Football Association and were founder members of the Edinburgh Football Association. By becoming members of the Scottish Association Hearts were able to play in the Fa Cup for the first time. Playing against 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers on October 1875 at Craigmount Park in Edinburgh. The game ended in a scoreless draw. A replay was held at the meadows which again finished 0 – 0. Under rules at the time both clubs proggressed to the next round with Hearts losing out to Drumpellier in the next round.

By season 1884–85 clubs in Scotland were struggling to attract players with them being attracted to playing in England due to the games professional status there. After an 11–1 win in the Scottish Cup over Dunfermline a protest was raised against the club for fielding two professional players. Hearts were suspended by the SFA for two years as this was against the rules at the time in doing so becoming the first club to be suspended. Although after a change of the clubs committee the club were readmitted.

Tom Purdie - Hearts first el capitano!

In November 1914, Heart of Midlothian comfortably led the First Division, having started the 1914–15 season with eight straight victories, including a 2–0 defeat of reigning champions Celtic.

This streak coincided with the start of the First World War and the beginnings of a public debate upon the morality of continuing professional football while young soldiers were dying on the front-line. A motion was placed before the Scottish Football Association to postpone the season, with one of its backers, Airdrieonians chairman Thomas Forsyth declaring that "playing football while our men are fighting is repugnant". While this motion was defeated at the ballot box, with the SFA opting to wait for War Office advice, the noted East London philanthropist Frederick Charrington was orchestrating a public campaign to have professional football in Britain suspended, and achieving great popular support for his cause. The prime tactic of Charrington's campaign was to shame footballing players and officials into action through public and private denouncement. In response, sixteen players from Hearts enlisted in Sir George McCrae's new volunteer battalion, joining en masse on 25 November 1914. The battalion was to become the 16th Royal Scots and was the first to earn the "footballer's battalion" sobriquet. The group of volunteers also contained some 500 Hearts supporters and ticket-holders, 150 followers of Hibernian and a number of professionals footballers from Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline. Military training was thus added to the Hearts players football training regime, and the side had a 20 game unbeaten run between October and February. However, exhaustion from their army exertions, twice including 10-hour nocturnal-marches the night before a league game, eventually led to a drop in form, as several enlisted players missed key games. Defeats to St Mirren and Morton allowed Celtic to usurp the Maroons and eventually claim the league title by 4 points.

The war claimed the lives of seven first team players: Duncan Currie, John Allan, James Boyd, Tom Gracie, Ernest Ellis, James Speedie and Harry Wattie.

There are two war memorials to mark this period. The McCrae's Battalion Great War Memorial in Contalmaison and the Heart of Midlothian War Memorial in Haymarket, Edinburgh donated to the city by the club in 1922. The latter is currently in storage due to the Edinburgh Trams work. A further memorial commemorating the 1914 Hearts team has been proposed by the club. An annual pilgrimage is held by football supporters to Contalmaison every year, whilst Hearts hold their memorial services at Haymarket or, whilst it is in storage, at Tynecastle Stadium.

Hearts War Memorial

The club went from 1906 to 1954 without winning a major trophy before enjoying a decade of success between 1954 and 1963. Under the management of Tommy Walker, Hearts won the League twice, in 1958, with a record 62 points and 132 goals scored (Still the Scottish 'Top' League Record) and only 29 against in 34 matches, and in 1960. Hearts also won the Scottish Cup in 1956 and the Scottish League Cup four times, in 1954, 1958, 1959 and 1962. This glorious period for the club contained many top, now legendary, names such as Alfie Conn, Sr., Willie Bauld, Jimmy Wardhaugh (the Terrible Trio), John Cumming, Dave Mackay and Alex Young. In 1964–65 Hearts lost 2–0 to Kilmarnock on the last day of the season to lose the league title to them on goal average. Subsequently Hearts were instrumental in pushing through a change to use goal difference to separate teams level on points, which ironically was to disadvantage the club in 1985–86.

Tommy Walker

From the mid 1960s Hearts went into decline. The players of greatest note in the 1970s were Jim Cruickshank, Donald Ford and Drew Busby, not to forget the loyal servant Alan Anderson. After the advent of the ten team Premier Division in 1975, Hearts were subsequently relegated for the first time in 1977. Promotion followed in 1978, but several seasons were spent yo-yoing back and forth from the Premier League to the First Division. The major problem for Hearts at this time was an antiquated company structure which was a massive disincentive to anyone to invest in the club. The board of directors finally resigned after Hearts failed to regain their Premier Division status.

The arrival of chairman Wallace Mercer led to a revival in the club's fortunes. The club came within 7 minutes of winning the league in 1986, needing a draw from the last game of the season away to Dundee. Two late goals by Albert Kidd combined with Celtic winning heavily against St Mirren meant Hearts losing out on goal difference. Hearts finished runners-up again in 1988 and 1992.

In the early 1990s the club struggled to settle on a manager. Within a 2-year period, Joe Jordan, Sandy Clark and Tommy McLean were all sacked. One of the few bright points in this period was the run of 22 games in a row without defeat against arch-rivals Hibernian, including the 2–1 triumph in the fourth round of the 1994 Tennents Scottish Cup at Easter Road, with Wayne Foster grabbing the late winner.

In 1998, Hearts beat Rangers 2–1 to lift the Scottish Cup under the management of Jim Jefferies, with a 1st-minute penalty from Colin Cameron and a second-half strike by Stephane Adam.

In recent seasons, Hearts have usually been competing for third place in the Scottish Premier League. They finished third in 2003 and 2004, and reached the inaugural group stages of the UEFA Cup in 2004–05, but finished bottom of their group, despite a victory over FC Basel. During the 2004–05 season, they finished fifth in the league.

In 2004, then club CEO Chris Robinson announced plans to sell Tynecastle, which he claimed was “not fit for purpose”, and instead have Hearts rent Murrayfield from the Scottish Rugby Union. This move was deemed necessary due to the club’s increasingly large debt. The plan was very unpopular with supporters, and a campaign, entitled Save Our Hearts, was set up to try to block the move. As Robinson and his supporters had a slight majority of the club’s shares, a preliminary deal to sell the stadium was struck with the Cala property development company for just over £20 million.

Murrayfield Stadium

In the midst of Hearts' financial difficulties in August 2004, Russian-Lithuanian multi-millionaire Vladimir Romanov entered into talks to takeover Hearts in what was dubbed the “Romanov Revolution”. Romanov had already made failed attempts to purchase Dundee United, Dundee and Dunfermline, Romanov offered the prospect of the club staying at a redeveloped Tynecastle, which was very attractive to Hearts supporters. At the end September 2004 Chris Robinson agreed to sell his 19.6% stake to Romanov. Romanov called an extraordinary general meeting in January 2005 so that the club could pass a motion to exercise the escape clause in the deal with Cala Homes. The backing of Leslie Deans and the McGrail brothers meant that the motion was passed with over 70% support. The sale of Robinson's shares was completed on 2 February 2005 after Romanov made financial guarantees that the club could continue to trade without selling Tynecastle. This sale increased Romanov's stake to 29.9%, giving him effective control of the club. Romanov's takeover was welcomed by a fans representative. Romanov increased his shareholding in Hearts to 55.5% on 21 October 2005, and offered to buy the rest of the shares. Chairman George Foulkes sold his shares to Romanov and encouraged others to do likewise. Romanov eventually increased his majority share in Hearts to 82%.

Romanov's management of the clubs debt became a cause for concern. During his takeover Romanov pledged to eradicate the club's debt. Soon after the takeover was completed, the debt was transferred from HBOS and SMG to the financial institutions controlled by Romanov, Ūkio bankas and UBIG. At the end of July 2007 the club were £36M in debt. On 7 July 2008, Hearts issued a statement that stated the club would issue debt for equity in order to reduce the debt by £12M. A further issue was completed in 2010. Since the takeover Hearts have failed to pay players wages on time on several occasions, and been threatened with administration twice due to failure to pay an outstanding tax bills with the bill finally being settled in August 2011. Results released for financial year ending 31 July 2010 showed that Hearts had made a small profit for the first time since 1999 although were still heavily in debt.

Hearts first manager of the Romanov era was George Burley who was appointed during close season by new chief executive Phil Anderton who has replaced Chris Robinson as chief executive. With their new manager and signings, Hearts got off to a tremendous start in the 2005–06 season. The team won their first eight league matches, equalling a club record set in 1914. Romanov shocked Scottish football, by sacking George Burley on the following day whilst hearts were sitting top of the SPL table, Hearts ultimately finished second. Hearts fans were led to expect a "top class manager" would replace Burley. Kevin Keegan, Bobby Robson, Claudio Ranieri and Ottmar Hitzfeld were all linked with the vacancy. Anderton, who had been making the approaches for these coaches, was sacked by Romanov on 31 October 2005. Foulkes, who had helped to bring Romanov to the club in the first place, resigned in protest at Anderton's dismissal. Romanov replaced both of them with his son, Roman Romanov. This has proved to be a feature of his time at the club with him going through nine permanent managers in seven years. The most recent managerial change came on 1 August 2011 when Jim Jefferies was sacked during his second spell at the club and replaced by former Sporting CP boss Paulo Sérgio.

Romanov stated that his ultimate aim is for Hearts to win the Champions League. Hearts competed in the Champions League during season 2006–07 but progressed only as far the second qualifying round before dropping down to the UEFA Cup. Since then Hearts have been unable to split the Old Firm for a second time to earn a Champions League place. In recent season Hearts target has been to finish third or above in the SPL.

Romanov also owns the Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas and Belarusian club FC Partizan Minsk. Several players have been loaned by FBK Kaunas to Hearts since Romanov acquired control of the club.

The club began experiencing severe financial problems in November 2011 which meant they were unable to pay the players wages and the club was put up for sale. The squad's October salaries were late and the November wages were paid twenty nine days late just one day before their December salaries were due. The December pay has failed to arrive, and a complaint was lodged with the Scottish Premier League by the players union. During this period the club advised fringe players they were free to leave the club. On 4 January 2012 the SPL ordered Hearts to pay all outstanding wages by 11 January 2012 and January's wages must be paid on time on 16 January. Hearts paid all outstanding wages that day following the sale of Eggert Jónsson to Wolves. On 17 January the day after Hearts wages were due to be paid it was revealed all players had been paid. Despite this the SPL issued a statement saying Hearts had failed to pay all players on 16 January and an emergency board meeting had been called, Hearts refuted this saying payment of the remuneration had been made to all players.

"Mad Vlad"

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN UNFINISHED THREAD, I WILL COMPLETE PARTS EVERY SO OFTEN IF I RUSH IT, IT WILL NOT GET FINISHED AS I WILL GET BORED PLEASE BEAR WITH ME!

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I recently started my first "proper" hearts save (i usually mess around with them on and off before the first couple of patches).

I am up to the start of season 4.

Season 1

First season was a mixed bag. Made lots of signings as always, and sold off most of the dross. Biggest deal out was getting a million for Big Zal (i love the big guy, but a million for a player of his quality was amazing), also got decent cash for Sutton and Novikovas in Jan. Brought Craig Gordon in on a free, using up my entire wage budge but what a signing to make! also brought in David Suazo on a free, and he was a decent signing. Scored a few for us. The others i brought in were a mixed back. A young norway CB called Kim Andre MAdsen i got for 30k and would eventually sell for over a mill. Dalibor Stefanovic was a former big name i got and he did a solid job. Pepe Diaz a veteran striker who chipped in a few goals before his physicals went quickly downhill. One German youngster, Dominic Berntsen on a free from Cottbus who took a while to develop but is now in my first team.

Performance wise was wierdly mixed. We were amazing in Europe. Got into Group stages by beating Trabzonspor and then got through a group containing Tottenham, Lille and FC Vaslui - we won all 3 home games. Even more amazingly we managed to beat Rubin 4 v 1 on aggregate in first knockout stage, before eventually Bilboa got the better of us.

Unfortunately, all the games in Europe badly impacted on our league form. We were knocked out both cups by quarter finals and only finished 4th in the league, which meant we missed out on europe. Major blow, as the euro money was what was keeping our finances happy and allowing us to make some good signings for the future.

Season 2

With no europe, it meant harder to attract players, although not as much need for a big squad as less games. We focussed entirely on the league, althogh woud have been nice to get a cup win we unfortuantely exited both early. One to Celtic, one to St Mirren. We struggled mightly for consistency, changing tacticts often and trying to blend in new signings and youngsters, however in the end we had just enough to finish second, a point ahead of Dundee Utd after taking it down to the final game of the season!

The main focus of the season had been the squad and we made several key deals. Madsen was sold on for a massive profit in less than a year (30k to 1mill), Danny Grainger moved on for 250K, Webster went to Ipswich for 400k as his legs were going. Incoming we signed a tricky portugese playmaker Rui Miguel, who would go on to be a key player for us despite being 29ish. We also were able to bring in James McFadden on a free, on just a one year deal as he was released by Sunderland. Faddy did us a turn, although another whose physical stats were declining. A random irish/japanese dual nationality Robert Cullen also came in as cover up front.

The real key here was my scouts being entirel focused on youth. Several regens came in who are now key first team players, and rated as top players (with the likes of Milan and Bayern chasing some of them now). This included a club record 1.6million on a Czech regen, who at 17 was immediately one of my best midfielders (2 years later he is club captain). We also brought in Alen Pamic, as a non regen and former top prospect who did a great job for 2 years and was sold on at a profit.

Finally our youth intake actually provided one or two real prospects, a striker who is now a scotland international at 17 (having been a first team regular for me at 16) and an AMC who is developing into an international class player.

Season 3

Trying to take on europe and not let the domestic form suffer was the new challenge, and with a decent squad, with one or two real european quality players and enough young prospect to keep me happy, i felt i could do it. At the same time still harvesting up and coming under 18 youngsters from around Europe.

League wise were involved in a huge battle with Utd, and for a good while Hibs before they fell off towards the end. We held off Utd by a couple of points, having sat 2nd most of the seaseon. Celtic were still some 29 pts clear tho.

In europe we again made the group stages this time with an easier playoff against Zeljeznicat. Again we also came through the group, which this time contained Bilboa, Metalist and OFK beograd. The first knock round gave us Schalke and our toughest challenge in the 3 seasons. Amazingly after a 1v1 draw at Tyne, we went to Germany and came away as 1 v 2 winners to progress. I was delighted. Next round gave us Galatasaray who on paper were not as strong as Schalke, but sadly they gave us a bit of a doing at tynie ( 0 v 3 ) meaning a hard fought goaless draw in "hell" wasnt enough.

Cup form was better, but annoyingly we lost the scottish cup final to Celtic. None the less, we had another season in europe, and had improved scotlands seedings to the point that we now had a second champs league place to go for. The other huge thing was massive development in our younsters. around 80% of the squad were now regens and some of them look as good as anything ive had at bigger clubs.

Season 4

Sold off a few experienced players at the end of season 3, meaning our entire squad has 2 players over 25 (both of whom are back ups who only play in bad times) and only and only 2 first 11 players over 21. I went against my better judgement and signed Leigh Griffiths on a free, after having him on loand the back end of season 3. He does score goals but is second choice to my monster home grown youth striker Grant Elliot. We also had gathered in even more amazing prospects across Europe though dedicated scoutign in the regen rich eastern europe and scandanavia.

Currently we are 26 games (in all competitions) into this season, and our record is is Won 21, drawn 5, lost zero. Our youngsters are now up to standard and we are ready to win the league i feel. We sold off McGowan who was my last "old" Jambo who was in my first 11, we got 2.5mill and had an italian youngster ready to step in. Also sold off Pamic for 1.9mill after only paying 500K, as he was 26 and i had younger and better options.

Remaining "original" Jambos currently in squad:

Jack Hamilton - 3rd choice keeper, never had enough game time to develop and we have a world class first choice. Handy as a back up and doesnt complain but wouldnt have him play much

Liam Gordon - Starts as a hearts U19 and not a huge prospect, but despite not much game time he has developed into a sold SPL player for me. 4th Choice CB due to the quality i have, but he wouldnt disgrace himself starting and is of course home grown right away

Jamie Walker - Versatlity has kept him around my squad. Not been first or second choice in any position over the last 2 years and averages around 10 games over a season but a handy bench player. Has developed from his starting stats and probably would have developed more with more games.

Other notable jambos

Kevin McHattie - Developed really well for me and spent season 3 rotating as my LB, playing around 50% of all games. I sold him for £500k to Barnsley purely because he had reached a ceilign and i had 3 other left backs who still had more development room, but he was gettin Ave ratings over 7.3 for me

Denis Prychenko - Developed well, but just couldnt break in as i was heavy in good young CM. He had a spell where he was in the team and scoring a few goals from CM (6 goals in 19 games in season 2). I sold him as he wasnt getting game time, and annoying only got 50K for him. He is now rated at 1.3mill by his russian club

Scott Robinson - Developed decently, but i couldnt get him to perform. Sold him for 875K which was good money, after he did have a decent spell.

Calum Paterson - Was my main striker for seasons 1 and 2, before Celtic came in and offered 1.7milion. He has some obvious flaws in his attributes so i had to take the cash. Averaged 12 goals in 34 games over the 2 years, which was decent but not enough for me.

Andrew Driver - Did his cruiciate and missed 9 months, during which his attributes plummeted. I sent him to Shewsbury on a free.

ANyone else playing long term as Hearts? Hows it working out for you? 3 seasons without a trophy is longest ive gone in FM as hears in many many years. I used to be able to win the league in season 1 quite easy. This version is so much tougher, and so much more realistic!

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Grant Elliot - A youth product from season 2 and a beast. At 16 he played 27 games and scored 14 goals. Threw him right in and although rotated a bit first season he was developing so well i have made him my main man in season 2. THus far 20 goals in 18 games says im right....

Subs

Paul Young (GK) - Signed for 65K from Ballymena, had played only League cup games, and a spell on loan at Hamilton but has developed well.

Arto Aaltonen (CD) - Signed for £400 compensation (again not at typo) from Honka, and pushing Olsson for starts

Fredrik Borgh (DMC/MC) - Signed for £500K compensation from Olympic, backs up both DMC and CM and is almost as good as my 2 starters

Jonathan Laing (AMC) - Youth product from Season 1, has had decent playing time since 17yr old and developing nicely, more than capable of replacing PAcheco if i want

Nikola Conkas (AMR/ST)- Signed for £425K transfer from Hadjuk, originally as a striker but now rotates in AMR with Berntsen. I like his attributes a lot

Leigh Griffiths (ST) - Ugh, pains me to sign him but he is good and he has scored 4 against the hibbess for me

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I play him in the DMC role but ask him to get forward from their as well, with a bit of a pivot with my MC who doesnt go forward. I find this takes advantage of Sovis ability to cover the entire pitch and contribute in all areas. It works well, you can see he gets a great Ave Rating, chips in with the odd goal and assist and makes a lot of passes and tackles.

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Given recent events, felt the motivation to start a new Hearts save. Used an updated DB, and manually placed hearts into administration and added the 15 point penalty via the editor, and released the players who have been released (started the save before Sutton jumped, but to be fair I never play him and sold him for about a tenner to Mansfield...)

As always when starting in Administration have to do not a lot to start with, and wait to be taken over. In my save, along came a group of Brazilian businessmen to take me over! Not quite a tycoon, but they cleared the debts, left me with a CVA of £6.75million and also promised to improve both training and youth facilities. On top of that, handed me £2million for transfers (although no wage budget increase, which meant had to give up some of the transfer kitty to balance that!).

Even with some cash, still hard to attract decent players and my major signings were:

Carlos Fierro (Loan) - Wonderkid, got an agreed fee of £4.5million which was always going to be out of my range, but getting him on loan for a season was great anyway.

Thomas Rogne (free) - Ex Celt, good CB qualities but slow, which combined with Webby's lack of pace gave me some issues...

Gary Naysmith (free) - Couldn't resist bringing him back to the club, mostly backed up McHattie and tutored him

Fredrik Midtsjo (£230K from Rosenberg) - Classy young AMC, right into the first team as our main creator

Craig Sibbald (£230k from Falkirk) - Good young Scottish talent, and ready to contribute to the first team.

Craig Gordon (Free) - Another club legend returning, and he wanted to be player/coach and only wanted £1K per week! had to take him, although his skills are so diminished that after about 10 games in the season he becaome second choice, because of the next signing...

Lukasz Fabianski (Free) - Ex Arsenal keeper, wasn't interested initially but once we hit October and he still had no club, his demands dropped to a decent level and couldn't pass up. Is a class keeper for SPL level

Roderick Miranda - (Free) - Former top prospect, randomly released by SLB B team in October, I snapped him up right away. Still a great young talent and amazed to get him for nothing.

Added a few other squad bits, and a couple more youngsters.

Season one, I managed to overcome the 15pt penalty quickly and made the top 6. Ended up finishing 5th, exactly 15pts off second place Inverness. Delightfully, after starting 15pts behind, we finished 10pts ahead of the hibbees :D

Moving onto season 2 and looking at playing a back 3, because I have 3 very good starting CB and 3 more great prospects......also have no decent RB, and both my LB whilst good can be re-trained into LM.

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November 2012: 3rd behind Celtic and St Mirren(!), have a wage budget of £21k pw, transfer budget of £5k, but have signed a few frees, and managed to get Spurs as a parent club. Have Ryan Mason on loan from them (plays SC/AMC) and he's amazing. Scored 8 league goals so far, 12 in total.

Still no new Chairman sadly, despite having to pay £220k pm to the Chairman as loan repayments :-/